A/P Philip Holden (email: ellhpj@nus.edu.sg)
The quiz will be conducted during class in Week 10.
It will test your knowledge of the theoretical concepts which we have discussed in Unit 2, and may involve giving the definitions for words or writing brief explanatory paragraphs about concepts.
The best way that you can prepare for the quiz is to know the basic issues that we have discussed in class in Unit 2, and be able to summarize, discuss, and evaluate them in your own words. These include:
1. The notion of a humanist approach to Literature as exemplified by Leavis and Arnold.
2. The notion of the "canon" and debates which surround it.
3. The notion of political instruction or intervention in or through Literature
4. Cultural Studies
While you may use the literary texts we have studied as examples to which to apply theory, the primary focus of the quiz is to test your understanding of the concepts themselves and, in particular, the debates which they engender. An ideal set of answers would show good comprehension of the theoretical texts we have read (Leavis, Arnold, Landow, Thumboo, Mao, Kuo, Sardar and Van Loon), and an ability to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
Last updated: 5 September, 2003